School closure may pose danger for some pupils

Meetings with HISD open dialog for families' fears

GERONIMO RODRIGUEZ, Chronicle Correspondent

Published 6:30 am, Tuesday, March 1, 2005

Houston Independent School District's plan to consolidate Douglass Elementary School with a nearby elementary will pose dangers for pupils who will have to cross Interstate 45 to get to school, parents said Monday night.

Parents and grandparents said the underpasses and feeder roads to the interstate often are occupied by vagrants and are a heavy-crime area. Olivia Dewhart told district officials she does not want her granddaughter, Diamond Rodgers, a first-grader at Douglass, walking anywhere near the interstate.

"What if I have to walk her to school one day, or what about the senior citizens in our neighborhood who walk their children to school every day?" said Dewhart, who lives in the 3000 block of Grey and a block from Douglass. "I can't even get across that freeway."

Dewhart was one of 50 parents and grandparents who attended the first of a series of public hearings that HISD has planned this month and next on the proposed closings of 11 schools. Officials are considering closing Argyle, Brock, Clinton Park, Douglass, Isaacs and Ryan elementaries after this school year and Bowie, Chatham, Easter, Fairchild and Anson Jones elementaries by 2006.

Consolidating schools

Houston school officials want to consolidate Douglass Elementary with nearby Dodson Elementary School to increase enrollment, enabling it to receive more funds, district officials told parents Monday night.

"One of the reasons that we're considering the consolidation of these schools is because the education efficiency improves when it has a significant amount of enrollment," HISD Superintendent Abe Saavedra said.

Saavedra said consolidating Douglass, 3000 Trulley, with Dodson, 1808 Sampson, would increase enrollment figures and enable it to receive more funds. Douglass and Dodson, which are about a mile from each other, have shared the same principal, Gwendolyn Hunter, for about a year and, at times, the same funding, Saavedra said.

Douglass' enrollment numbers have plummeted in recent years, officials said, and the south-central school's funding has been cut. The school's enrollment is at 274 students, down 26 percent from five years ago, according to HISD. The enrollment also falls behind the district's average for elementary schools, which is about 750 students.

Safety concerns

According to district officials, Douglass cannot afford to offer a fine arts program, hire a full-time librarian or keep the building clean because it receives less funding than a school with a larger enrollment.

Terry Abbott, HISD press secretary, said that by law the district cannot fund transportation for children who live within two miles of their school but that the district may see what it can do within that law to address parents' concerns.

"If we look at the area in question and find that it is indeed a hazardous route, then we may be able to work something out as far as transportation," said Abbott.